Open Your Eyes
by CountessCora
Summary: Robert returns from the Boer War with nightmares. Can Cora help her husband to realize he's safe at home!


**Open Your Eyes**

_AN: the characters do not belong to me. This is from a prompt, "open your eyes" on tumblr from allabouttheabbey. I hope you enjoy it! xx_

A loud noise jolted Cora from her sleep. It was Robert, screaming in the midst of a nightmare. He was tangled up in the sheets that he had nearly ripped from their place in his efforts to get away from something dreadful in his dream.

"Robert! Honey, please wake up. You're safe at home! Open your eyes!"

Somehow his subconscious must have heard and understood his wife's voice because he stopped thrashing about as much and lay on his back, breathing in hitched panting.

It had been only three days since Robert had been home from the Boer War, and Cora was beyond happy to see him again. But when the nightmares started, she chastised herself for not being more prepared regarding how to help Robert with what must have been unimaginable terrors. He had seemed enough himself during the day, readjusting to life at Downton and making up for lost time with Cora and their daughters, but the nights were another story.

"Please, honey, wake up. It's me, Cora, and you're safe at Downton. You came home to me. It's all right."

At the sound of her name, he opened his eyes and peered through the darkness just to make sure it wasn't some trick of the imagination.

"Cora? Is that you?"

"Yes, darling, it's me, and you're safe. You've been home three days."

"Three days?" He asked as he became more fully awake. "That's right. I'm sorry, Cora. I don't want to appear weak in your eyes because of these dreams."

"Weak? Never!" Cora assured him. "You've been through a living nightmare. I'd never think any man who had been to war weak for having horrible dreams. I read the papers every day while you were gone, and I'm sure they weren't telling even half the story."

"No, Cora, they did not." His voice sounded small in the dark. "I was so worried about you and the girls every day. About what would happen if I didn't come home."

Cora gently embraced him. "Well, you did come home, and seeing you walk through the door ended any risk of that. I knew my own nightmares would come to an end once I could feel you, hold you, have you back in our bed every night, see you playing with the girls."

"Sybil acts like she barely knows me," Robert lamented.

"She was so young when you left," Cora reasoned. "Two years is a bigger part of her lifetime than it is of Mary's or Edith's. Give her time, she loves you. She drew pictures for you and prayed for you every night. Sybil loves her Papa, have no concern of that. She shifted in the bed. Do you think you can sleep again?"

"I can, I think," Robert said tentatively. "I want to hold you, Cora, but I... I don't want to thrash about in my sleep and... hurt you."

"You won't hurt me, my love," Cora said. "If you're having a nightmare again, I'll wake you up. I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about."

"Are you sure?" He asked, thinking about the comfort of her arms and how he had longed to be near to her every night in Africa.

"I am positive," Cora said. She scooted over to give him room to stretch out and be comfortable, something she was sure he had lacked in the war. "Come here and lay your head down. You must be exhausted. It will get better with time because I'm going to remind you each and every time you need to hear it. You're safe, you're home and you're with me. So close your eyes and dream of the first time we walked the grounds of Downton. You were showing me everything and I immediately fell in love with the estate... and you."

Robert smiled as he let himself nod off. They both knew that it would not in any way be the end of the nightmares, as an experience such as his would have a far greater impact than that, but he had Cora. Thank God for her, he thought as he glided into sleep. In time, the images he saw in his subconscious would become mere images, because his favorite reality was snuggled beside him, warm and real and scented with her familiar perfume. She would not let him drown in what had frightened him the most.

In a few hours, he started to stir and cry out again, but Cora woke him gently and calmly. He found that it took less time to remember that he was home and safe. She straightened the sheets that had wrapped around him again and whispered some of her favorite memories of their life together in his ear as he returned to sleep.

Sometimes the two realities collided, which made for the most scary dreams of all. He was back in Africa, fighting when he looked up to see Cora in the middle of the battle, unaware that she was in danger.

"Cora!" He screamed as he ran to reach her. "You don't belong here!" As bullets whizzed by, he jumped in front of her just in time to stop it with his own body. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground bleeding, taking shallower and shallower breaths as he whipped his head around, looking for Cora, praying she'd reached safety.

"Cora," Robert cried out with exhaustion throughout his body. "Where are you? Cora? Where are the girls? Please tell me they're not here, too! I'm never going to see you again... the bullet... hit too close..."

"Robert," Cora's voice said in his ear, you've not been hit by a bullet. "You're at home with me. The war is over. You're back and the girls will see you every day. Remember, Sybil asked you to join her for a tea party with her dolls tomorrow? Open your eyes and look at me."

He did as he was told and was rewarded with the softest, most loving gaze he could imagine.

"Cora," he gasped. "I'm here. With you."

"Of course you are, and that is where you will stay." She held him close.

Whenever he looked at her, he knew what it meant to truly open his eyes.

The End


End file.
